


Ruin

by mildlyholmes



Series: The Family Potter [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, First War with Voldemort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:20:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27815209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mildlyholmes/pseuds/mildlyholmes
Summary: What begins as a Muggle day out ends in a battle.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, James/Lily, Sirius Black & James Potter, Sirius Black & James Potter & Lily Evans Potter
Series: The Family Potter [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1969438
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

She’d just paid for her coffee and was returning to join their little gathering when she heard the first shout.

Green eyes whip up just in time to see the Muggle server walking by their table topple over, the drinks she’d been holding spilling over as she crumples on the ground. Immediately, the members of the Order within their group jump to their feet, wands raised as the others cry out in shock. The commotion has unsurprisingly attracted the attention of other customers in the café; all around them, Muggles are staring in shock, no doubt reeling at the absurd sight of the unconscious waitress and two seemingly ordinary men brandishing short pointed sticks like swords.

Typically, such scenes are not expected out of a day out with the Muggleborn Society. Comprised of Mary MacDonald, Florence Martin, Adam Wright and Lily Evans, it's everything you'd expect out of a group of magical Hogwarts graduates spending a decidedly non-magical day together: exploring Muggle London, frequenting Muggle cafés, and catching Muggle events. They'd come up with it in January last year, but hadn't counted on its popularity; apparently, many Muggleborns deeply miss the Muggle world, with most having abandoned all things Muggle when they'd come into magic. Even some born from wizarding families, like Arthur Weasley and Benjy Fenwick, opted to join in their outings as it began to grow, curious with the non-magical world as they were. 

Of course, with the rise of anti-Muggle sentiments lately, the society started to shrink. Some had called for it to be disbanded altogether, fearful as they were of the dark wizard who's name people only spoke in whispers. The founding members of the society, however, were not to be deterred, and so, with a few volunteers from the Order of the Phoenix present, they'd decided to frequent the cinema to catch the latest Rocky movie together and after that, agreed to have a chat at a café Adam had discovered by his house.

It is there that the commotion happens.

Lily's eyes fly towards Benjy, who's gaze is already on her. Only moments ago he’d been booming with laughter, discussing the movie they’d all gone to watch together. Now he looks at her with seriousness etched across his face, all traces of laughter gone. Immediately, her thoughts snap into focus, gearing into a defensive mode she'd become far too accustomed to over the past year since joining the Order. The coffee cup she’d been holding lays forgotten on the floor, spilling across the dark wood as she whips out her wand and makes towards their little group. Caradoc Dearborn, who'd volunteered to come along with them, has already activated the fire alarm and is pushing past the scrambling Muggles towards the front entrance of the café – Lily watches as he skilfully blocks a second jet of red light shooting towards them.

“Send a message to the Order,” Benjy instructs her when she reaches them. “Then get the others out. Caradoc and I will handle any threats.”

With that, he makes after Caradoc; Lily can hear shouts of a duel forming outside. 

There's no time to worry after them as she turns towards the remaining members of their group. Some have already disapparated, and those who have stayed are all staring at her with wide, fearful eyes.

“You heard Benjy,” she tells them. “Leave if you must and get word to the Ministry to block this area off. If you’re staying, help me get the Muggles out. If any Death Eater comes across them, they’re dead.”

As she expects, two more of their group squeak out rushed apologies and disappear with a crack. She pushes the familiar rush of disappointment and irritation back down and reminds herself that not everyone is a fighter, not everyone is willing to risk their lives. Instead, she watches with relief as Mary, Florence and Adam begin ushering the remaining Muggles out the back door, shouting orders for them to notify the police.

Another shout from outside jerks her back to her task. It takes a few tries, but she manages to conjure the silvery doe and sends it off to Headquarters as quickly as she can. By the time she’s done, the last of the Muggles have been ushered out. Mary and Adam are now pulling the unconscious waitress aside.

Lily opens her mouth to ask, but Mary shakes her head, her face white. Lily spares a moment to close her eyes and runs a shaking hand through her hair.

Florence approaches her. “Lily,” she whispers, glancing nervously towards the sounds of duelling outside, “what's happening?"

"Death Eaters," Lily mutters in reply, casting a quick spell to barricade the door against any Muggles. 

Florence turns white, but Lily can hardly understand why; the _Prophet_ has been reporting random Muggle attacks more frequently as of late. Surely she's well aware of the risks posed by visiting Muggle areas. She's about to tell the other woman to go home before another question is directed at her: "This can’t be a random attack. How did they find us?”

The rationality of the question manages to take her by surprise. “I don’t know, Flo,” she responds tiredly. And truly, she doesn’t; she racks her brain, but the arrangements they’d made had been carried out with the greatest discretion. It seemed unwise to share the Muggleborn Society’s doings with anyone other than a select few members of the Order and their respective family members. All in all, those who were fully aware of their plans were fewer than ten.

Whispers of a spy within the Order fill her mind. She hadn’t wanted to believe it was true…

A tremor that shakes the ground startles her back to reality. Steeling herself, she turns back towards her companions and fixes them with hardened looks. “Leave now, all of you. Don’t let anyone else come this way. I’m going to help them,” she tells them, meeting each of their eyes in turn.

Florence rushes to hug her, and then she’s gone; Adam lets out a stream of apologies about having to check on his family, who live nearby, and disappears too. Mary turns towards her with a worried look.

"Lily..." she begins uncertainly.

As the only one of her dormitory mates that she still keeps in touch with, it's no wonder that Mary is reluctant to leave her side. She'd been around when Lily'd lost Severus, and while the shorter girl had never been Lily's best mate, she'd been unwaveringly loyal to her. But Lily recognises her hesitance for what it is; she'd always been terrible at duelling. The Death Eaters would cut her down in an instant.

"Mary," she interrupts, hoping that she'd feel more useful with a task to carry out, "find James. Let him know what's going on." 

The conflict immediately vanishes from her face. James would be notified along with the other members of the Order, she's sure of it, but Mary takes the assignment seriously all the same. She squeezes Lily once before disapparating away with a loud _crack_. 

For a moment, Lily allows herself to breathe, standing alone in the small café. The doors are locked, the windows boarded shut, and her heart thuds loudly in her ears. It's hardly her first scuffle with Death Eaters – joining in with the Order of the Phoenix made sure of that – but it's certainly the first fight she'd be in since she found herself pregnant. Benjy would certainly expect her to leave along with the others, but Lily'd never been one to run. She only hopes that they're able to hold the Death Eaters off until reinforcements arrive.

Steeling herself, she raises her wand and rushes out the front door.

It is chaos outside. Everyone is a blur of bright lights and shouts, with the few Order members pushing Death Eaters away towards the café. The Death Eaters are predictably clad in dark robes. Masks cover their faces so that they can't be identified, but the voices that shout out curses are familiar; she'd duelled these wizards before. A few bodies litter the ground, and she observes their Muggle clothes with horror. The Dark Mark has been cast over the café, looming menacingly in the sky.

Benjy and Caradoc have been joined by Dorcas Meadowes, the famed Auror – she watches as the latter shoots an impressive hex at an unsuspecting Death Eater, dark curls flying wildly as she spins towards her next target. Lily sends a hex of her own towards a Death Eater who’d been aiming at Benjy and the blond man whips around to search for the spellcaster, eyes narrowing as he focuses on her.

“You’re supposed to be gone by now!” he shouts angrily, blocking a spell that comes his way.

“Fat chance!” she bellows back, jinxing another Death Eater who flies backwards. “I had to help you!”

“James will have my head!” he yells. It's a familiar argument that Lily ignores, falling beside Benjy as they fend off attacks. Ever since Lily had discovered her pregnancy, James had been more protective than ever – and it's sweet, it really is, and part of it makes sense, but nobody can deny that they need as many fighters as they can; Voldemort's army is growing by the day, and their group only shrinks in comparison. She'd be more understanding, perhaps, if she'd reached the point where her belly begins to show, but she's only a few weeks along and apart from the close friends they'd told, nobody in their right mind would guess that she's pregnant. 

So she fights. She and Benjy have always made a great pair, and duelling is no different. She assumes defensive as he goes on the offensive, twirling his wand skilfully as she makes way for his advances towards the two Death Eaters they duel. Had they been closer in age, Lily is certain they'd have been best mates in Hogwarts – but perhaps it really is for the best, because Lily's learnt some of her best hexes from Benjy. She shoots one now that knocks one Death Eater off their feet, and Benjy roars in approval.

Suddenly, a loud blast shakes the air, drawing screams from around them. Lily is roughly thrown back by the force of it, and the ground _tremors_. Blind panic fills her as she remembers the life inside of her, the precious baby she's carrying – thinking furiously mid-air, she directs a cushioning charm blindly behind her, hoping that it will absorb the worst of her fall –

It manages to do the trick. She lands with a thud against a hard, brick wall, but it’s not as painful as she’s expecting, though the shock of it leaves her dizzy for a moment. Still, a quick scan shows her that nothing’s broken or bleeding save for a nasty gash on her elbow – which, really, is brilliant considering how violently she’d been thrown back.

She hurriedly rises to her feet and looks around her. It looks like she’d been thrown into an alley of some sort, the narrow street short and full of backdoors to shops. Save for a few rubbish bins, the street is relatively clear and quiet. It's strange; she can see it leading out to the main, cobbled street they'd been fighting on – and the shouts are still there, but distant now, as if she's hearing them from far away. But surely she couldn't have travelled _that_ far out? Surely she'd still be able to hear the shouts of her comrades, clear as day?

Before she can do anything more, the sound of footsteps emerge from the street; she ducks behind a dumpster, blood pumping wildly in her ears.

A male voice speaks, voice breathless and rough. “The barrier has been set, My Lord, but it will not hold for long. Dearborn was present, and Meadowes appeared soon after – we expect th others to join them soon.”

“Good,” a thin, high voice responds, “proceed as planned. Have the Mudbloods been disposed of?”

“Ah – most had disapparated before we managed to reach them – Dearborn and Fenwick were defending them, and we suspect they were aided –”

“I see.” A cold chill fills the pause, and Lily shivers involuntarily. “Disappointing, most disappointing… but they are cornered now, at least. Kill those you can. Destroy any Muggles you come across. Make _certain_ everything is carried out according to plan.”

“Yes, My Lord.”

A pause, then the footsteps scatter away, presumably towards where Benjy, Dorcas and Caradoc are trapped. Lily wants to rush towards them, to yell out what she’d heard and protect them, but she isn’t sure if the man she’s certain is Voldemort has moved away yet. A part of her itches to cast a presence revealing spell to check, but she doubts it would go unnoticed. He’s an exceptionally skilled dark wizard, after all.

She’s trying to come up with another plan of escape when she hears the thin voice speak again. “You are foolish to believe that you can hide from Lord Voldemort,” the man says. “Reveal yourself, or I shall do it for you.”

Heart beating wildly in her chest, Lily sits stricken against the dumpster. She knows, realistically, that there is no escape from this – she has to face him, or he’d seek her out. She desperately wishes that she’d had James’s cloak with her, but there is no avoiding this.

Slowly, she rises from her spot behind the dumpster and looks at the man who’s been responsible for so much terror.

Of course, she’d heard about Lord Voldemort in school – tales of the dark wizard linked to several disappearances were difficult to avoid – but stories always depicted him in a hooded cloak, low over his head, so nothing of his face could be seen. It had always been particularly thrilling, hearing of the dangers of the outside world within the safe walls of Hogwarts. Naturally, she'd been exposed to his exploits after joining the Order, but even those were hooded by a haze of fantasy – it was much easier to believe that the man who'd committed such terrible acts was a fabled legend rather than a living, breathing human being. 

Now, as she stands directly before him, she sees that he is most certainly a man and yet everything but.

He’s clad in his signature cloak, the hood pulled low to conceal his face, but she can see the markings of an angular chin, skin deathly white and stretched tight. The cloak does much to conceal his figure, but it’s not difficult to tell that he’s unnaturally thin. The only part of his body that she can clearly see is the white, skeletal hand that emerges from a dark sleeve, long fingers curled around a sleek wand. It’s an eerie sight, almost ripped out of a Muggle horror film.

The same hand rises to beckon her forwards. Shaking but unwilling to appear afraid, she steps out of the shadowy alley onto the cobbled street. A quick glance behind him reveals a thin, translucent veil that blurs the fighting figures directly behind it – the barrier, she realises, that the Death Eaters must have put up.

“Lily Evans.” Now that she’s directly before him she can hear him more clearly – his voice is high, higher than she’d expected out of the Dark Lord, and its cold, ringing quality sends shivers up her spine. Hearing him say her name only adds to the terror that grips at her.

Swallowing her fears, she raises her wand a little higher and straightens her spine. “You know me?” she throws back, her voice surprisingly steady despite the tremble in her bones.

“I once believed you would be useful to my cause,” he responds, standing tall and imposing before her. “Word of your talents had reached even that of Lord Voldemort. Slughorn’s prized student, exceptionally gifted at Charms, Head Girl – my Death Eaters were particularly impressed by you. It seemed enough to garner my consideration.”

He lifts his head then, and Lily catches a full glimpse of his face for the first time.

If not for his eyes and mouth, she would have hardly believed he was human. The man that stands before her is pale – far too pale to be considered normal, with sunken cheeks and skin stretched tight over angular features. His eyes are a startling red, cat-like and narrow in shape. There are slits where his nostrils should be, and his lips are stretched thin. She’s almost certain she’s staring at a corpse brought to life.

Those same eyes burn into her, holding her still. “A shame you rejected my offer,” he says softly, “but Lord Voldemort is forgiving. You would do well within our ranks.”

At this, her blood runs cold. The vague memory of Rabastan Lestrange approaching her at Hogwarts is thrown sharply into focus. She remembers how he’d cornered her in the dungeons after a Potions lesson and invited her to a meeting at the Hog’s Head that Hogsmeade weekend. Somehow, her Muggleborn status had been forgotten as he told her how much she could contribute to advancing the British Wizarding order, how valued her talents would be. James, who'd gone looking for her, had been extended an invitation too; she remembers how Lestrange’s black eyes roamed greedily across his shining Head Boy badge and finely tailored robes. Having the Potter name and wealth on their side would certainly be favourable.

Severus had been lurking in the background, watching them closely, and she and James took great pleasure in rejecting Lestrange there and then. They hadn’t realised at the time the invitation had been issued by Lord Voldemort himself.

Yet here he is, extending his hand once again, trying to recruit her. She realises that of course, it's all about blood status, and yet it isn't at all – for Voldemort, what matters most is power, and conquering those too weak for it. In that moment, Lily can't help but feel that he's completely, without a doubt _insane_.

Gripping her wand tightly, she glares hatefully at the man who’d been responsible for the death of that waitress, for all the deaths and disappearances she and James had mourned together over the last few months. It’s with relish that she bites out, “A shame you chose to devote your cause towards your twisted sense of blood purity. Turning you down was the easiest decision I’d ever made.”

Lily knows that she’s treading through dangerous waters, but she watches with grim satisfaction as his thin, white lips stretch into an ugly smirk. A beat follows, then: “So be it,” he says coldly.

And then he’s raising his wand and speaking the words; the shield charm she throws up is automatic, even knowing it would be useless in blocking the jet of green light that will come her way. Her heart drops into her stomach as she realises that she’ll never see James again, that their child will never see the light of day – and oh Merlin, how she _wishes_ otherwise –

Far too quickly that if she’d blinked she would have missed it, a jet of red light comes from Voldemort’s right and hits him in his side; it doesn’t hurt him, but manages to throw him off balance. The Killing Curse meant for her shoots above her, hitting the roof of the Muggle coffee shop. She instinctively directs her shield upwards as bricks blow apart, exploding with an earth-shattering blast.

Her ears are ringing as she scrambles away from the wreckage directly before her. The impact from Voldemort's curse was powerful enough to blow apart the roof of the shop above them. Bricks and debris rain down onto the street, obstructing her view of the veil that had been directly behind him. Voldemort himself is nowhere to be seen; the blast has blocked his path from her. She can hardly dare to believe her luck. A wild, hopeful thought springs into her mind – perhaps he’d been buried in the wreckage, perhaps this is the end of his reign of terror. But it dies as quickly as it was born; even she is not foolish enough to believe that a wizard as powerful as he could have been brought down by bricks.

Just then, a familiar voice shouts out her name, and she spins around, bewildered. But sure enough, James is there, his hair wild as ever as he runs towards her. Without giving it a second thought, she breaks into a sprint and meets him halfway, throwing herself into his arms.

“James,” she gasps, all the bravery and recklessness from her encounter with the darkest wizard of their age gone.

“Thank Merlin you’re alright,” he murmurs into her hair, but pulls back just as quickly. His hazel eyes, always shining with mischief, scan quickly along her frame for any injuries. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, fine – where did you come from?" she asks, still bewildered.

"Mary," he says, and at once she remembers asking her friend to fetch her husband. "Padfoot and I came as soon as we heard. When I couldn't find you, I went looking." 

The events of the last few minutes are a blur and she shakes her head, trying to focus. "You and Padfoot – you – _you hexed the sodding Dark Lord?_ James, what were you _thinking?_ "

"Don't you start!" he fires back. "There I was, hoping that my wife'd at least have some sense to just stick it to a Death Eater, but _no_ , I find her about to _duel fucking Voldemort, instead!_ "

"I wasn't about to duel him – he was going to finish me off, right there –"

_"That's even worse!"_

She's about to send him a nonsensical but heated retort before a small _crash_ startles them both back into the moment.

James immediately whirls around to the sound, shielding Lily behind him. "The Order are here,” he says shortly. “They’ll handle this. You’ve done enough.”

"No _chance_ , James," she says angrily, trying to push past him. "I'm not an invalid. I can still fight."

Another blast and he pulls her down – not that they'd been in any immediate danger, seeing as they're separated from the fighting by a wall of fallen bricks, but he attempts to shield her just the same. "I _know_ you can fight. I'm saying reinforcements are here, and you don't have to." 

"Shut up, James –" The events of the past few minutes come back to her in a rush, and she gasps, the sound making James turn around to face her worriedly. "Voldemort!" she gasps out. "He had a plan! He knew the Muggleborns were meeting today, he knew that if we were attacked, that we’d call the Order! He's barking – tried to recruit me –”

_"What?"_

"I _know!_ " she cried. "He's absolutely _bonkers_ –"

"If he wanted to recruit you, why'd he try to _kill_ you?"

"Because I told him to piss off, obviously –"

James presses his hand to his face with a loud groan. 

"That's not the point –" Lily rushes on before they can get off track again. "He's set up a trap for the Order. I didn't hear the details, but whatever it is –" 

"– we have to warn them," finished James. His expression hardens and he looks back towards the wall of bricks, where the sounds of fighting from the other side can be heard, then turns back to face her. He looks as if he’s about to argue with her, to whisk her away and run, and for a moment she really thinks he will – but ultimately, he lets out a tense huff. “Fine,” he mutters, running a hand through his mussed hair, “Fine.” He considers her for a moment, then says sternly, “You stay by my side and stick to the shadows. We’re _not_ risking our baby.”

“As long as you do the same,” she shoots back.

He regards her briefly, then gives a stiff nod.

It takes them a while to find a way around the rubble of brick blocking them from the battle. They’d both agreed that while it would have been easiest to blast a hole in the wreckage, they would surely attract unnecessary attention and provide for easy targets. When they finally reach the side where the fighting is heaviest, Lily finds that the barrier has been dissolved; half a dozen or so more Order members have joined the fray, and Voldemort is nowhere to be seen. The street has been blown apart; the café is completely obliterated, bent tables and chairs scattered across the street. More bodies litter the ground, and with a lump in her throat, she catches sight of familiar dark, curly hair spilled across the bloody cobblestones.

She feels a tug on her hand and allows James to pull her down, crouching behind a half-destroyed car as chaos reigns around them. His eyes scan the street, and she follows his gaze, coming across Caradoc, the Prewett brothers, and Alastor Moody – and still he searches. With a jolt she realises who he’s looking for, hoping beyond hope that she won’t find another familiar body lying mangled on the ground…

But they hear Sirius’s triumphant roar as he and Benjy bring down a Death Eater, a gash across his forehead his only sign of injury, and James almost slumps against the car in relief. With a silent agreement, they move discreetly towards the two victorious men, ducking behind cars and chunks of debris, delivering the occasional hex as they go. Lily keeps an eye out for a figure in a hooded cloak, but he is strangely absent from the scene.

“Padfoot!” James calls out from behind the broken table they’ve crouched behind.

“Prongs! You alright, Lily?” Sirius booms above the yells of fighting.

“Voldemort was here,” Lily blurts out rapidly, “it’s a targeted attack –”

“We know,” Sirius cuts across her, “he left.”

“He _left?”_

He nods bleakly as another Death Eater falls in the distance; Lily sees Moody looming above the figure. “Odd, isn’t it? If he stayed, we’d be done for. But he took one look at the fighting and told his minions to finish us off. Took Dorcas out before he went, though,” he finishes bitterly, directing a particularly vicious curse at a hooded Death Eater. “Didn’t want to do the dirty work, the bloody wanker. Thought we’d be easy to finish off.”

It's lucky that James is there to block the hex that comes hurtling their way, because Lily is stumped. Voldemort _left?_ Hadn't she just heard him go on about some plan to trap them all? Would he not be involved? Of course, there's every possibility that he'd leave it to his Death Eaters – but if he'd made an appearance, _surely_ it was important enough for him to stay...?

Another hex comes hurtling their way, taking the side mirror off the car they're crouched behind. "Lily," James says frustratedly beside her, brows furrowed in concentration as he sends another jinx. _"Pay attention_ _."_

"Sorry," she mutters, wand poised and ready. "I'm wondering why he left."

"Me too, Lils," he grumbles, "but no time to think about that now –"

He’s interrupted as a shout is heard; Caradoc, Benjy, and Fabian have been cornered – the Death Eaters are closing in. Lily throws every hex and curse she knows, aiming at every black mass of robes she can see, but there are too many of them, and too few of the Order – Dorcas is already down, and she can see another pool of blue robes, and she isn’t sure how much more they can take –

And quite suddenly, the curses stop advancing; Lily’s gaze snaps up in time to see the Death Eaters disappear one by one in clouds of black mist. The Order members fighting them cry out in shock and outrage, aiming at the clouds, but it’s too late – they’ve gone.

The cobbled street is silent in ruin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lily's encounter with Voldemort is based off JKR's comment in an interview with PotterCast that Voldemort had tried to recruit the Potters, Lily in particular, and an exploration of one of the instances where they 'thrice defied' him. The Harry Potter Wiki page also mentions that Voldemort tried to recruit Lily in particular, probably at the recommendation of Severus Snape, and I wrote this with that information in mind.
> 
> I also have a second chapter planned to explore the aftermath of the battle and try to fill the gaps in Voldemort's plan, but I kept it deliberately vague, as Order members probably wouldn't know what was going on.


	2. Chapter 2

For the next moment or so, everything is silent.

As they stand there, wands still raised and staring at the suddenly empty street, a thousand questions run through Lily’s mind. _Where have they gone? Why did they leave so suddenly? Is this part of the plan?_ In all the roadside scrambles and random attacks she had witnessed, the Death Eaters would not leave until they’d left a few bodies and sufficient destruction behind. But then again, Voldemort had never personally supervised their efforts before…

She can hear James breathing heavily next to her, his hand a solid warmth in hers. Sirius, who stands beside them, begins to lower his wand, but Moody snarls, “Don’t put it away, boy!” and he jerks it back up, shoulders tense and eyes alert.

And so they wait in the midst of the smoking café and ruined cobbled street, watching for any sign of movement. Lily’s not sure how much time passes, but she’s still painfully aware of the bodies that litter the ground, eerily still and fragile.

Suddenly, there is a loud _crack!_ and five wands point at the sound, moments away from uttering a curse. The man that has just appeared raises his arms, terrified, and cries out, “Don’t stun! I’m from the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes!”

A beat, and Lily takes in his dark, formal robes, a ‘MOM’ badge pinned to his lapel. Finally, wands are lowered all around. Caradoc approaches and begins to brief the Ministry employee on the events that occurred and the attention it garnered. Moody lets out a loud _harrumph!,_ barks, “Aurors, with me!” and begins to round up the fallen Death Eaters, with Gideon and Fabian Prewett and other Aurors following suit.

She feels James lets out a harsh breath next to her and turns to him, allowing herself to finally look him over. Apart from a graze on his cheek, she’s relieved to find that he’s completely unharmed. Sirius is worse for wear; they each sport a few cuts along their faces and, she suspects, their bodies, but she can’t see beyond the long coats they wear.

“How did they find us?” Lily asks them quietly as they watch the clean-up commence. “I hadn’t told anyone apart from James and you lot that the society were meeting, or where we would be.”

James shrugs helplessly. “Haven’t the foggiest.”

“That’s comforting,” Sirius mutters, and they all fall silent at the implications of this.

For weeks, now, there had been rumours of a spy within the Order. They were mere whispers, suspicions here and there, but apart from a few narrow run-ins with the enemy, there was no real reason to believe it could be true – until now.

But _who?_ Lily can’t, for the life of her, think of anyone within their ranks who’d willingly give everyone else away. The thought troubles her as she watches them lift Dorcas’s body gently, placing her across a levitating stretcher. Benjy stands beside her, looking down at her limp form with a strange expression, and Lily swallows back a lump in her throat. Dorcas – the witch she’d always admired for her steely resolve, the Auror frequently dotting the pages of _The Daily Prophet_ with stories of daring captures, the woman who’d smiled warmly at her in welcome when she’d first joined the Order… Benjy closes her eyes.

Just then, they hear another _crack_ and five different Aurors turn towards the sound. In dark robes and looking thoroughly dishevelled, Peter emerges, his mousy brown hair sticking up at odd ends, his small eyes wide and terrified.

“Maybe he’ll have word on Remus,” Sirius mutters, raising his hand to catch the shorter man’s attention and beckoning him over. “Bad luck, mate – you’ve missed out on all the action.”

“Sirius,” Peter breathes, “James, Lily. I didn’t know you’d be here – where’s Remus?”

“Well, there’s your question answered, Pads,” James sighs.

Peter has gone white. “He’s not – you mean to say –”

“He wasn’t here with us,” Sirius cuts him off, sounding annoyed. “We’d thought you might know.”

“No, no – I’ve been at the office all day, paperwork, you know –”

“Yes, yes,” Sirius waves him off. “Thought you’d get our message, though.”

If possible, Peter’s face seems to lose the little more colour that it has left. “It’s been mad,” is all he says, but none of them question it. It’s no surprise that Peter would have been too afraid to aid them in a fight, especially after their last scuffle with the Death Eaters. Lily supposes she can’t exactly blame him; he’d nearly lost his arm, then.

“At least you bothered to show up,” Sirius says bitterly.

“Sirius,” James says sharply, and they all fall silent.

Since she had first started dating James, Lily had come to realise that the Marauders not only spent their entire school year together, but their summers and Christmas breaks, too. There’s never one without the other three, and for the first few weeks of her marriage to James, she’d become well accustomed to the fact. But over the past two months, it’s become glaringly obvious that Remus has tended to disappear more often than not. And when he does show up, he’s far more quiet and sullen than usual.

Lily had pinned this down to the war – Merlin knows they’re all exhausted by it. Looking at Sirius’s look of morose expression, however, makes her heart sink a little. She’s glad James, at least, is firm in his convictions.

With this in mind, she reaches out and catches Sirius’s hand; he looks up sharply at her. “We have to trust each other,” she says quietly. He glances down at their joint hands and looks up again, grey eyes searching green. Slowly, he nods.

A voice calls out her name and they break out of their reverie. She turns to see Benjy and Caradoc jogging towards their little group, both looking a little worse for wear but ultimately unharmed. “Are you all right?” Caradoc asks, looking at all of them in turn.

“No serious injuries, Doc,” James shakes his head, smiling without mirth.

“Good,” the older man says, shifting into a businesslike tone. “We’ll have to take your statements.”

They nod; of course, Caradoc, as a Senior Auror, would need an account of everything that had happened here today to report back to the Auror department. James and Sirius gesture for her to go first, so briefly, but with as much detail as she could remember, she recounts her version of the event: being thrown back by the blast, overhearing them speaking of a plan, realising he’d known Benjy and Caradoc would be here, and – James runs a stressed hand through his hair at this – her encounter with Voldemort. Both Aurors are gobsmacked when she tells them that he’d heard of her exploits in school and tried to recruit her.

“Well, of course, most of his Death Eaters are Hogwarts graduates,” Caradoc mutters, shaking her head. “But – forgive me, Lily, but you’re not exactly his… _type_ , are you?”

She thinks about how he’d formulated his plan today around killing Muggles and Muggleborns, and how he’d probably consider her blood just as filthy. “No, not exactly,” she says dryly.

“Do you have any idea why he’d ask Lily to join him?” James cuts in.

Caradoc and Benjy exchange a brief look. “Well,” the latter says slowly, “all the Death Eaters we know of are intelligent, highly capable witches and wizards. If not academically gifted, they tend to excel in one field or another. Maybe he thought you’d… sympathise?”

Lily snorts. “Fat chance.”

Benjy shrugs. “I don’t claim to understand the madman’s actions. It’s why we’re fighting this war in the first place. Anyway…” He turns back to Sirius. “What happened with you?”

“We were trying to get them to stop killing the Muggles,” Sirius says immediately. “James and I came as soon as we heard, and – it was chaos, and Muggles were running about and getting hit everywhere. James had gone off to look for Lily, so I tried to get them out of the way while the others handled the Death Eaters. Then, the top of the café exploded, and You Know Who gets thrown into the fray – it was mad. I reckon he was really angry about your stunner, James, because he turned on the rest of us. Started duelling the Prewetts and Dorcas. And, well – you know how that ended. He disapparated after that.”

Caradoc purses his lips, nodding. “Thank you. That’s all I need from you, I should think. If you’d all rather return to your homes…”

At the mention of home, Lily becomes suddenly aware of the weariness in her bones, the exhaustion of another fight. She forces herself to push this back, saying, “Thanks, Doc. Take care of yourself too, alright?”

“Yeah…” Caradoc mutters, running a hand through sandy brown hair. “We’ll – we should have a drink, for Dorcas. Tomorrow, perhaps. I’ll send an owl.”

With that, they watch as he turns and walks back towards Moody, speaking to the burlier man in low undertones.

“Any idea what he meant by his ‘plan’?” James asks, fixing his gaze on the remaining Auror.

Benjy sighs. “Not that we know of. They seem to come up with new plans every other day. Doc’s been swamped, lately,” he tells them quietly. “There’s been an attempted attack at the _Prophet_ offices. Of course, the Ministry’s been trying to keep it quiet, but can you imagine if word had gotten out? There’s enough panic as it is without _his_ lot writing the headlines.” He shakes his head. “Anyway – we’ll call a meeting once we get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, just… be careful.”

He gives Lily a short squeeze, shakes hands with James, Sirius and Peter, and jogs back towards the other Aurors.

“ _Be careful_.” Sirius snorts. “Like that’s new.”

“It’s worth a listen,” Peter says quietly.

“But quite impossible, with the war going on,” James says shortly. “Doc’s right, we should be off – coming, Pads, Pete?”

Sirius nods but Peter shakes his head, so they bid him goodbye and apparate back to Godric’s Hollow. Lily sends an owl to James’s parents to let them know they're safe while James heats up their leftover chicken, and Sirius brings out some Butterbeer for them as they seat themselves on the small dining table. They eat silently, at first, but then Sirius cracks a joke and Lily can’t help the small smile, and James gives them both a look of such tenderness that warmth spreads through her chest.

And, she thinks, even if there’s a war going on, even if everyone around them is slowly dying, at least she still has James. She has James, and Sirius, and Peter and Remus – wherever he is. They descend into laughter as the night wears on, the conversation flowing easily, and she leans into James’s arms around her, his palm curling around her waist to rest protectively over her still flat stomach. The world around them burns, but tonight, her world is right here.

Their moment of bliss is interrupted by a grey owl, tapping at their window.

Caradoc had never made it home that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course, Peter would have turned spy by now, but I don't believe that after years of friendship, he'd rat his friends out just like that without feeling some guilt. I can't understand why he did what he did, but I tried to write him as feeling more anxious for doing so.
> 
> As for Voldemort's 'plan', I'm aiming to address it in later works in this series. Either that, or I'll add chapters to this work.


End file.
